Monday, February 20, 2017

Kizh Nation = Native American Los Angeles

GabrielenoIndians.org; Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Xochitl, Wisdom Quarterly

Rebel Kizh Medicine Woman Toypurina
Today there is a growing awareness of the enormous debt that Los Angeles owes the Gabrieleño. Although the city traditionally traces its cultural heritage to Spanish and American roots, it was the Gabrieleño who built and supported the missions, Pueblo, and ranchos [concentration camps, town, and Spanish ranches].

It was the Gabrieleño who provided the goods and labor that enabled the first settlements to survive and prosper; without them the history of Los Angeles would be very different indeed.

“The First Angelinos”
William McCawley edited by Wisdom Quarterly
The Kizh (Gabrieleños) are the indigenous people of the Los Angeles Basin who were enslaved to build the San Gabriel Mission as well as the Los Angeles Plaza [Catholic] Church.

Historians have attempted to erase their history through the manipulation of politics, both local and federal. This conspiracy running throughout the 20th century has had the goal of avoiding the question of repatriation.

The current chief of the Kizh Nation
Chief Ernest Perez Tautimes Salas is the temporal and spiritual leader of the original documented Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians.

He has proved to be the most recognized and most accurately documented direct lineal-descendant of former native ancestors of Kizh/Gabrieleño villages or rancherias, the villages of Sibangna Siba, Tameobit and Atongai/Tamet, from 1785 of any Gabrieleño Indians in Gabrieleño history.

In 1994, the State of California recognized the Gabrielino Tribal Council as "Gabrielino" -- without the use of the term Tongva.
 
Spiritual leader Chief Ernest P. Teutimez Salas leads the original Gabrieleño Tribe of  San Gabriel, and it was through him that the Gabrielino Tribal Council gained acknowledgement of its nonprofit status, granted by the State of California in 1994 (501c3 incorporated and founded by Ernest P. Salas).

Chief Salas is the great great grandchild of Nicolas Jose, a man of great power who had an important role in the uprising and rebellion at Mission San Gabriel.

[Forced religious conversions]
Nicolás José (1748-?) was a San Gabriel Indian, a man of great power, of control, a good leader. He was among other natives who first worked with the Spanish then turned against them. On September 27, 1774, 26-year-old Nicolás José was baptized [tricked, forced, or induced to become Catholic] by Father Pablo Joseph de Mugartegui at the San Gabriel Mission.

He was only the third adult male Gabrielino to be baptized at the mission. There are no historical records revealing if he had exercised any religious or political authority in his home of Sibapet (Hackel 2003).

However, soon after that baptism he exercised his leadership and power in many ways. He became one of the first Indians to serve as a Gabrielino marriage witness and the only Gabrielino to serve as a godparent for the child of a Baja California Indian. More

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